Preview of the first image of Dictionnaire universel françois et latin, vulgairement appelé Dictionnaire de Trévoux - 1771.

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Jesuits between 1704 and 1771.

On sale the fifth and last edition of this famous series, complete in 8 volumes and covered with a pretty binding in full calfskin of the time. Ribbed spine adorned with a rich gilt decoration and compartmentalized. Title and volume numbers in red and green leather.

Condition: Decorative and beautiful appearance. Bindings in good condition. Slight defects: lack of fragment for three caps, rubbing from use. Corners rubbed or pierced. Fresh interiors, light foxing. Nice copy.

A vast and monumental undertaking of popularized scholarship, the Trévoux Dictionary, which bears the name of the town where the first edition was printed, was originally the work of a group of Jesuits: Fathers Bougeant, Buffier , Castel, Ducerceau and Tournemine. It was Furetière's dictionary that served as the basis for Trévoux, which had tremendous success throughout the 18th century, as evidenced by its five editions (1704, 1721, 1732, 1752, 1771). From the first edition published in three volumes, until that of 1771, it was for almost seventy years constantly revised, corrected and enriched with new articles. It was still possible to say of Trévoux, in 1842, that it was "the most imposing edifice erected by French lexicography" (Matoré, Hist. des dictionaries français).

The initiative to publish a dictionary competing with Furetière came from the Jesuits: they thus sought to deprive the Protestants of Holland of their income, whose controversial works were financed by the sale of Furetière.

The Dictionnaire de Trévoux was published from 1704 to 1771. The first edition, which appeared in 1704, "was very largely marked off" from the Dictionnaire de Furetière (1690) which had subsequently been enlarged by Henri Basnage de Beauval. The architect of this first edition is Richard Simon, as demonstrated by Michel Le Guern. He takes up the essence of the Furetière of 1701, purging it of notions deemed anti-Catholic, and adding important articles on sects and heresies, without recalling either the name of Furetière or that of Basnage. However, specifies Jeandillou: “the last version of the Furetière dates from 1725, while the Trévoux was completed and perfected from 1720 until the fifth and last edition of 1771.”

This dictionary is an important work because it offers, in the 18th century, a kind of synthesis of the lexicographic works of the 16th and 17th centuries. The authors are Jesuits whose exact identity is not known, but who have taken care to mention a certain number of historical, philosophical, literary or other sources. The study of these sources is of the greatest interest.
for the history of French-language dictionaries: it was with him that many encyclopaedic-type sources were introduced and disseminated until then little used by lexicographers, but which would be increasingly considered during the 18th century .

[ Trévoux Dictionary ]
French and Latin universal dictionary, commonly called the Trévoux dictionary, containing the meaning and definition of both the words of one and the other language, with their different uses, and of the terms specific to each State and each Profession, the description of all natural and artificial things, their figures, their species, their properties. The Explanation of all that the Sciences and Arts, whether Liberal or Mechanical, etc. contain. With scholarly and critical remarks. The whole drawn from the most excellent authors, the best lexicographers, etymologists & glossaries, which have appeared so far in
different languages. New edition corrected and considerably enlarged. (8 volumes)
Paris, by the Company of Associated Booksellers, 1771
Folio (41 x 25.5 cm); Complete in 8 volumes: Over 500 pages each

Subject: Important Trevoux Dictionary infolio Fifth edition in 8 volumes 1771 Jesuits

Attention, for a shipment, the book will be prepared in at least 2 packages of 20 kg 67346141

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